Hearing the Voice of the Child with communication difficulties
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Title: Hearing the voice of children and young people with learning disabilities in the Education Health Care Plan (EHCP)
IRAS ID
201866
Contact name
Sara Pearlman
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
SEND project reforms board
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 2 days
Research summary
The SEND reforms (2014) require that the “voice” of young people with disabilities and special educational needs is elicited and taken account of in decisions about planning for their current and future education and health care needs. Yet, there is a sizeable sub-group of young people, who have limited language or do not use recognisable speech to communicate. There is currently no evidence-based procedure to elicit the opinions of children with moderate to severe, or profound and multiple learning disability. Recent discussions have focused on this topic at the London and South East CY-IAPT and CORC conferences.
The SEND reform project board in Brent has highlighted a gap in the delivery of the ECHP, in that we do not have a standardised method of obtaining the views/aspirations of young people with moderate, severe and profound learning disability who have limited communication skills. The Board have approached Sara Pearlman, Clinical Psychologist and CAMHS representative to the Board, to ask her to develop an appropriate, evidence-based method. The proposed method is outlined below, together with the funding implications.
Research questions:
1. Can we develop a semi-structured interview with questions that are pertinent to the lives of this cohort, to elicit relevant responses that inform the ECHP?
2. Can we put together and use appropriate communication aids for assisting the responses to the above interview?
3. Using video clip analysis, can we come to an agreement as to the meaning of the child’s responses and gain statistically significant inter-rater reliability between those who know the child well?REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Sheffield Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/YH/0264
Date of REC Opinion
12 Jul 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion